Brown humiliates Britain by dithering over a Treaty Europe does not need

Strasbourg, 12th December — Repeating the Conservative call for a referendum on the eve of the Lisbon Treaty, Sir Robert Atkins MEP, , said today that Gordon Brown had embarrassed the UK by being indecisive about signing a Treaty that experts have stated is both unnecessary and damaging to British interests.

He said:

“There is no requirement for this far-reaching treaty. Just this week, one of Europe’s leading academic experts published a report on the effects of enlargement of the EU. She stated clearly what we have been saying for a long time - namely that the EU has been operating perfectly well without the Reform Treaty.

“We have all been told that the EU could not cope with enlargement without institutional upheaval or even log-jam. All of this reinforces our view that this Treaty is all about political symbolism rather than any objective assessment of what Europe needs.

“Alone among his fellow leaders, the British Prime Minister persists in perpetrating the myth that the Treaty and the Constitution are different. The British people do not believe him and the vast majority have repeatedly expressed their view that there should be a referendum. Mr Brown has ignored their wishes and this has done much to undermine his Government and the European Union more generally. Maybe this is why he has decided not to sign the Treaty in public this week. What is he afraid of?”